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Concept
Kingdom of Burundi
Summary
The Kingdom of Burundi (Royaume du Burundi) or Kingdom of Urundi (Royaume d'Urundi) was a Bantu kingdom in the modern-day Republic of Burundi. The Ganwa monarchs (with the title of mwami) ruled over both Hutus and Tutsis. Created in the 17th century, the kingdom was preserved under German and Belgian colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th century and was an independent state between 1962 and 1966.
Origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa
The date of the foundation of the Kingdom of Burundi is unknown, and the exact context of the state's foundation are disputed. The region was originally inhabited by Twa hunter-gatherers before the influx of Bantu farmers from about the 11th century. The Kingdom of Burundi was probably founded in the 16th or 17th century when pastoralists entered the area. The pastoralists arrived in waves and initially founded a number of small kingdoms, exploiting the lack of unity among the already settled farmers. After gaining control over the existing population, the newly arrived settlers ultimately assimilated them. The region's pastoralists were considered the ancestors of the later Tutsi ethnic group, while the agriculturalists became the Hutus.
The Kingdom of Burundi was founded by first mwami Ntare I (1675–1705). There exist different accounts about the ethnic origin of Ntare I. According to the "Kanyaru traditions", Ntare's royal clan and its associates were related to Rwanda's royal family, and had migrated from Rwanda to Burundi. Another telling of the events, provided by the "Nkoma cycle", suggests that the state's founders were ethnic Hutu and had migrated from Buha (modern Kigoma Region) to Nkoma before arriving in Burundi. It has also been proposed that the royal clan was descended from Hima pastoralists who had migrated from southern Ethiopia.
Under Ntare I, Burundi expanded and annexed a number of surrounding polities. Over time, his royal clan became separated from both the Tutsis as well as the Hutus, becoming known as the Ganwa and regarded as a de facto separate group.
Official source
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